The present invention generally relates to surgical equipment and specifically to surgical tools used in laproscopic or similar types of surgery. In recent years, the applications for lapraoscopic surgery have expanded to include many different procedures. A benefit of lapraoscopic operations is the relatively quick recovery period experienced by patients, due to the small incisions that are made in the body. These incisions reduce the trauma and the required healing compared to traditional surgery. Lapraoscopic tubes and sleeves with diameters on the order of 10 millimeters are inserted in the body cavity, although the diameter may increase or decrease depending upon the instrument used or the need. Various instruments and a video camera are typically directed through lapraoscopic sleeves for performing and monitoring the surgical steps.
A particular concern in lapraoscopic surgery is the transporting of tissues and other masses that are cut away or retrieved during a surgery. While moving, manipulating, or cutting up a removed mass within the body cavity, pieces of infected or cancerous mass, blood, bile, and other liquids may escape into the body cavity and pose infection problems or other complications. These materials are desirably removed by placing them in a bag or similar enclosure within the body cavity before removal to minimize the risk of infection or other complications. It is important that the containment of the materials be accomplished as quickly as possible with minimal disturbance to the surgical site.
Instruments with membranes or bags have been designed in an attempt to avoid the complications associated with the removal of tissue during lapraoscopic surgery. These devices typically fall into two categories, those that have a bag coiled around an introducing rod that must be unfurled by various maneuvers, and those that pop open a bag using a spring, wire, or other mechanism. A device that falls into the second category is a pouch disclosed in Pagedas (U.S. Pat. No. 5,368,597), which utilizes a flexible rod slidably, connected to a wand to create a reclosable pouch. When the rod bows out, the bag is opened. When the rod straightens, the bag is closed to form a seal.
Typically when a bag is used to contain the tissue or other material that is to be removed through the small incision, it is necessary to first use a morcellater to reduce the size of the tissue mass so that it can fit through the small incision. Accordingly, the top portion of the bag is removed from the body cavity through one of the small incisions. The top portion of the bag is then opened so that the morcellater may be extended into the bag and into contact with the tissue or other material that is to be reduced in mass. A problem is that specimen bags may be ruptured by the use of known morcellating instruments. Additionally, known morcellating instruments are so powerful that they can quickly and inadvertently cut through healthy tissue, bone, or even the operating table.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a morcellater that allows for efficient reduction of the targeted tissue material but will not easily rupture or cut through the bag or other nontargeted tissue material.
Additionally, there is a need for a morcellater with built in fail safe devices that cause the morcellater to automatically turn off if the surgeon operating the device is inadvertently bumped in a crowed operating theater or if the surgeon were to go into seizure from a heart attack or other physical malady.
The present invention is believed to address these and other problems by the unique and simple structures and methods disclosed herein.